Pico Rivera Innovative Municipal Energy Celebrates its Five-Year Anniversary

PRIME 5 Year Anniversary LogoPico Rivera Innovative Municipal Energy (PRIME), the City of Pico Rivera’s locally managed public energy service, celebrated its five-year anniversary on September 1, 2022. PRIME currently serves 15,205 residential customers and 1,706 commercial customers throughout the City.

“Over the past five years, PRIME has offered clean power alternatives and resource conservation while helping Pico Rivera residents and businesses save on energy costs,” said Erik Lutz, Pico Rivera’s Mayor. “We are proud of PRIME’s impact in our community and were impressed with Tripepi Smith’s ability to deliver engaging and informative content to share with our residential and commercial customers.”

As the City’s energy provider, PRIME purchases clean power on behalf of customers while Southern California Edison (SCE) continues to deliver that power to residents and businesses.

PRIME offers multiple programs, including PRIME Power, a 50% renewable energy product, and PRIME Future, a 100% renewable energy product. Customers eligible for CARE, FERA and Medical Baseline discounts continue to receive those benefits through PRIME.

Since its launch, PRIME has saved customers over $1 million. PRIME’s annual load has varied since its first year of serving its full customer base in 2018; the program’s annual load has remained between 210,000 MWh and 230,000 MWh, with a spike in 2020 due to summer heat waves and an increase in residential demand during the pandemic.

Beyond helping customers save on energy bills, PRIME has partnered with multiple organizations over the last five years to bring invaluable community programs to Pico Rivera, including joining forces with Energy Upgrade California to provide residents with best practices to improve grid health and local energy reliability and collaborating with OhmConnect to reward customers for saving energy. Additionally, PRIME’s partnership with the Institute for Local Government and the Beacon program supports renewable energy policy adoption and sustainability initiatives. The CCA is also engaged with SoCalREN to help design and implement programs that will increase energy savings.

In addition to partnerships and community programs, PRIME has also helped expand the City’s Office of Sustainability, which will allow the CCA to continue developing innovative renewable technologies to best serve Pico Rivera residents and businesses, as well as support state energy and climate change goals.

Moving forward, the Office of Sustainability will focus on developing solar and battery storage programs, completing the City’s streetlight conversion to LED, and creating an EV charging plan to encourage the widespread adoption of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Additionally, the Office will be tasked with developing a City Climate Action Plan and lead on other citywide projects such as the Bikeway Paths Project.

PRIME, an associate member of the California Choice Energy Authority (CalChoice), is one of 24 community choice energy programs in California, serving over 11 million customers in over 200 towns, cities, and counties.

“PRIME’s five-year anniversary is an important milestone,” said CalChoice Executive Director Jason Caudle. “The Pico Rivera community has benefitted tremendously from cost-efficient, clean energy programs and we look forward to continuing our partnership to expand access to renewable energy.”

To learn more about Pico Rivera Innovative Municipal Energy, visit https://www.poweredbyprime.org/

To learn more about partnering opportunities with CalChoice, please visit www.CaliforniaChoiceEnergyAuthority.com.